Camp welcomes children of vets, first responders battling PTSD
Program supports kids who have parents living with occupational stress injuries
A new charitable initiative is focusing on supporting the children behind the scenes of invisible illnesses in Alberta.
The inaugural Warrior Kids Camp welcomed 25 children of first responders and veterans living with an occupational stress injury, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, to Camp Van-es in Strathcona County this weekend to share experiences and build skills to support themselves and their family members.
“Over the years of doing the practice and charity works we realized that there really wasn’t a lot of support for the children,” said Helena Hawryluk, one of the co-organizers.
Through Hawryluk’s PHD research on military adolescents — which was funded by a Wounded Warriors fellowship — she and her twin sister Jerris Popik began to work on programming specifically to support children of veterans and first responders, who they said are often not as well supported.
“The first responder population has always been an area that’s been a gap for providing mental supports with the family component,” said Popik, who co-founded support services centre Families First with her sister.
Fully funded by Wounded Warriors, a national charity that works to support veterans and their families, the camp featured two days of hands-on learning, games and time with therapy and rescue animals for the kids ages eight to 16.
“When we bring (the kids) together and we say, ‘It’s not a bad thing,’ sometimes it takes away even more stress from giving them the understanding of what (stress) is,” Hawryluk said.
Carey Rizzato, whose eight- and 11-year-old daughters took part in the program, hopes the skills they learn will help her and her husband, who has an occupational stress injury, communicate better as a family.
“I just think it’s important for kids to have support, whether it’s a school, whether it’s through the military (or) through an outside source,” said Rizzato.
Hawryluk and Popik added that the camp isn’t just about teaching the kids — it’s about building on the strengths they already have.
“They’re already thriving in families and they’re using skills,” said Hawryluk, who is in the process of defending her doctoral thesis at the University of Calgary school of social work right now. “They all have amazing superpowers.”
The program is planning to expand to Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador and Atlantic Canada next year, and to British Columbia the year after to accept 125 kids in total each year, said Philip Ralph, Wounded Warriors national program director.
“It’s great to see that (Helena’s) research, that we funded because of the support of Canadians, has now translated into this groundbreaking, amazing program that’s going to go right across the country,” he said.